Though the number of adolescents who are getting affected by teen depression has been increasing, the good news is that more than half of them outgrow this problem and grow up as adults with good mental health. This has been found by a study conducted by researchers.
Research findings
50 percent of the girls and one-third of the boys taken for the study have had bouts of teen depression when they were adolescents, but once they attain the age of 20, they could jettison the baggage of the problem. The findings of the study are quite interesting. The depression problem these teens had certainly became the concern of their family doctor. But the problem did not last for more than six months in most of the teens studied. They could get better as they grew older.
Researchers think that this may be due to the development of the adolescents that includes maturation of their brain systems. Especially, those systems that are related to social as well as emotional processing and also those needed for learning and developing new cognitive skills and acquiring emotional capabilities matured in the right manner in these teens.
They also opine that the transformation may be due to the fact that the teens are successfully and smoothly transitioning into adulthood with the positive help and impact of education and their association and their new relationships with others when they leave home.
Smooth transition not guaranteed
At the same time, these researchers warn that they cannot categorically guarantee that the affected teens will transition into young adults without mental health issues. They point out that there are young adults in their 20’s who may also have bouts of depression or anxiety which means that the teen depression problem may extend into adulthood also. These experts firmly believe that the findings of the study will give them ample scope to conduct further research for having a better understanding of the risk factors involved in the mental illness that is popularly known as teen depression. At the same time, these experts do not deny the overlapping nature of various types of depression and personality development issues.
Reasons experts assign for teen depression problem
The reasons these experts assign for teen depression problem are related to family disputes like parental separation, social contexts. In the case of young adults, the problem of depression may be related to the mental health issues they faced during their adolescence. They add that social contexts can also negatively impact the vulnerability in these people.
Treatment options
Researchers are of the firm opinion that timely intervention will prevent the problem, reduce the frequency and decrease the duration of the bouts of depression or anxiety so that these people may not have this mental health issue in the later part of their lives. If early intervention does not yield results, they advise parents and relatives of the affected people to seek the help of professionals like trained psychologists and counselors or even organizations that have been formed for this purpose.
The general inference got from the study is that majority of the adolescents who are affected by teen depression problem outgrow this problem once they reach the stage of young adulthood. But, for helping these affected children to get over this problem, parents, teachers, friends and others should allow them to talk. They should listen to the problems of these young people and try to work with them for surmounting the problem. So, the right treatment for these people is to try and understand their problem. These experts emphatically say that there cannot be any biological explanations for the emotions felt by these adolescents.